House Votes to Defund ObamaCare Enforcement

The House voted to defund President Obama's health care overhaul on Friday during a sustained burst of floor activity on amendments to a temporary spending bill that would keep the government lights on but impose deep cuts on domestic programs.

The House approved the amendment in a 239-187 vote.

Among the other actions the House took was to reject a controversial plan to end the Pentagon's sponsorship of a NASCAR team and to vote for a ban on federal aid to Planned Parenthood.

The proposals were among more than 120 amendments remaining for the House to vote on as Republican leaders wind down a week of frenzied action on the spending bill.

The overall bill is the first step in an increasingly bitter struggle between Democrats and Republicans over how much to cut federal agencies' funding over the second half of the budget year that ends Sept. 30. Current funding runs out March 4 and a temporary spending bill will be needed to avoid a government shutdown.

The news is not all good. A lot of Republicans defected on defunding the COPS nonsense, and what I guess was supposed to be a temporary Homeland Security payout to first responders (in the wake of 9/11) which has now become, like all government programs, permanent. And commenters say they haven't cut Amtrak yet (but they're offering amendments so they might) and you've got Dan Lundgren whining about cutting his staff budget.

Toughen up, buttercup.

I don't really think he's threatening to quit the caucus as the Washington Examiner claims. They're very nearly making that up. But he is whining like a schoolyard bitch, as Champ Kind would say.

I don't get these people. How do they politically think they can sell "shared sacrifice" if they insist on no sacrifice at all for themselves?

What the hell? What part of the sentence "We all must sacrifice" is throwing you there, Dan? Which word in that sentence is the read-bump causing your eyes to spin out of control?

I don't want to sound like Jim DeMint here but this is the mathematical fact: We only need 218 House members, plus say a dozen as spares and back-ups.

We can do anything we want with that many. We do not need more. If some of these assholes find this is too difficult for them, I support and encourage their defection to a third party. We will beat them next cycle.

Or not. Who cares. That's the wonderful thing -- it doesn't matter if we beat them or not. We only need 218 (230 for cover and backup).